Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sickness and Flus

Kombanwa mina-san!

Jeremi desu yo!

Sickness! (Beginner)

Ahhh *cough*, do I really have to blog? *sniff* I shall do it for the loyal viewers!

Todays lesson will be a lesson in the Japanese language regarding
everything about sickness! It contains everything you simply
need to know about Japanese phrases and words regarding sickness, medical issues, about how well you feel and your wellbeing etc.

I thought that this time of the month *cue evil music*, the flu infestation time, *evil music stops* would be the ideal time to learn about phrases relevant towards sickness! Of course, now in Japan, it's not winter, quite the opposite,
but in the souther hemisphere (where this blogger originates from :D) it indeed is!
I'm, unfortunately, sick myself, and so have been plagued from sickness's wrath :(
But, I continue to blog on! No virus shall keep me at bay from blogging!

Let's start off simply with phrases which are more related to how one feels!

O-genki desu ka?- Are you well? (How are you?)

genki desu!- I'm well!

Kibun ga ikaga desu ka?- How do you feel?

Kibun ga warui desu :( - I feel bad :(

OR, kimochi ga warui desu- I feel ill

Genki is a word which literally means "good", so by adding the questioning particle "ka" and the structure particle "desu" after this word, you get a question regarding how well somebody is! Please note that the "o-", in this case, is necessary for the question version (e.g o-genki desu ka?), but not for the aswering version or reply (e.g genki desu!). Warui is a word which means "ill, bad". Kibun literally means "perceptual feelings", and so by adding the questioning structure to it, and "ikaga", you get a question which relates to how somebody feels physically. Also, "ikaga", is just simply a formal version of "how is it", instead of o-genki, or dou. Kimochi literally means "feeling", or "sensation", so by saying kimochi ga warui desu, you are stating that you feel ill.

Moving on to the more specific sickness feelings, symptoms, general hospital help!

Netsu ga arimasu!- I have a fever!
Isha wo yonde kudasai- Please call the doctor
Tasukete kudasai- Please help
Yoku nari mashita!- I feel much better!
Noda ga itamimasu- I have a sore throat.
Hakike ga suru!- I feel nauseated!
Kaze wo hikimashita!- I have a cold!
Seki ga tomarimasen- I can't stop coughing
Tsukaremashita!- I'm tired!
Zutsu ga suru- I have a head ache!

Wow! I'm sorry for letting out those slightly higher level phrases!
I shall justify them all at once :)

Netsu ga arimasu- Netsu means fever, ga is another version of wa (used in situations where you're talking about what you have), arimasu simply means I have.

Isha wo yonde kudasai- Isha, meaning doctor, wo meaning of, yonde, meaning call, kudasai meaning please.

Tasukete kudasai- Tasukete meaning help, kudasai meaning please.

Yoku nari mashita!- Yoku meaning well, narimashita meanings becoming

Noda ga itamimasu- Noda meaning throat, ga meaning is, and itamimasu being the pain version of I have (itai means pain, arimasu means to have).

Hakike ga suru!- Hakike meaning nauseation, ga meaning is, suru means to be.

Kaze wo hikimashita- Kaze meaning sickness, wo meaning of, hikimashita meaning to have.

Seki ga tomarimasen- Seki meaning cough, ga meaning is, tomarimasen means to not stop.

Tsukaremashita- Tsukare, to be tired, mashita to be.

Zutsu ga suru- I have a head ache!

Thank you for reading lesson number 3!

I promise to make a more detailed lesson next time, kibun ga warui desu yo :(. Kimochi ga warui desu yo!

This lesson was paticularly vocab intensive, and so will require a lot of revision :)

Arigato!

Ja mata!




Monday, June 22, 2009

Japanese lesson number 2, pronouns


Kombanwa mina-san! Good evening everyone!

Jeremi Desu Yo! It's Jeremy!

O-genki desu ka? How are you?

Prrroooonouns!

Welcome to lesson number, 2!
In this Japanese lesson we'll be going over, an essential aspect
of any language, pronouns!
This lesson won't be as long, I can hear much sighs of relief as I say this,
hehe ^^
We touched slightly on pronouns in the previous lesson, but I'd really just like
to clarify and expand on pronouns.

In order to say "I.." You'd say "Watashi...".
In order to say "My..", You'd say "Watashi no...".
What does the "no" do, exactly?
"No" is a possesive particle, and so changes
pronouns accordingly.

To say "You" You'd say "Anata...."
In order to say "Your",
you just need to add the possesive particle "no",
so, like this, "Anata no".

To say "We.." You'd say "Watashi tachi..."
To say "us", you need to add the possesive particle so it would be "Watashi tachi no"
Tachi is a word which helps to make a sentence plural.
So, to say "You (plural)" you'd say "Anata tachi" (It's sort of like saying "You guys...")

Ok, and so , can you guess how we would say, our, then?
Yes, you'd say "Watashi tachi NO...",
because "our" requires the possesive particle "no"

Now, moving on to gender specific pronouns!

To say "He", we'd say "Kare",
of course to make this into "His" we need to add
a possesive particle so, "Kare no".

To say "She", we'd say "Kanojo",
likewise to make this into "Hers" we need to add
another possesive particle, so, "Kanojo no"

Arigatou gozaimashita! (Thank you very much!)
I hope you enjoyed that lesson, there's hundreds on the way!

Oyasuminasai! (Goodnight)

Jeremi desu yo



Saturday, June 20, 2009

1st lesson on my blog!- Basic introductions


Konnichiwa mina-san!
Good day everyone!

Jeremi desu yo! It's jeremy!

Biiig lesson!

Basic introduction,numbers and pronounciation!

This is a histroic moment for 2011japan.blogspot.com, for today, the 1st ever Japanese lesson shall be posted! I'll make sure to create some audio for it on my youtube channel, JeremiDesuYo, !
"So, what exactly shall mark this great occasion, which words and useful phrases will we learn?"
Is the question I can mostly certainly hear in your focused minds. Well! We'll be learning useful, yet simple, introduction phrases and related words! Yea!

But before I place this big weight of responsibility on you guys,
we shall go over the prounciation laws of Japanese!


a = as in father

A-sa-ku-sa -- Tokyo place

i = as in eat

Ni-hon-ba-shi -- Tokyo place

u = as in food or zoo

U-e-no – Tokyo place

e = as in end

E-do – name of Tokyo before 1868

o = as in Ohio

O-cha-no-mi-zuTokyo place

The consonant sounds are:

k = as in cat

A-ka-sa-kaTokyo place

g = as in gourd

Gin-zaTokyo place

s = as in Sue

E-bi-suTokyo place

sh = as in seashore

Shi-ta-ma-chi – Tokyo area

z = as in zoo

Zen

j = as in Jack

San-gen-ja-ya – Tokyo place

t = as in tick

To-ra-no-monTokyo place

ts = this is one of the tricky ones; thinktsetse fly.

Tsu-ki-ji – Tokyo place

ch = as in chicken

Chi-yo-daTokyo place

n = as in new

Ni-hon – “Japan”

h = as in have

Ha-ra-ju-kuTokyo place

f = another slightly tricky one; think of “who” with an f sound

Fu-ji-san – Mt. Fuji

b = as in Boeing

O-da-i-baTokyo place

p = as in party, pea, Poe

I-p’pon-ba-shiTokyo place

m = as in mama

Ma-ru-no-u-chi – Tokyo place

ya = as in yahoo, yeoman,

Ya-su-ku-niTokyo shrine

r = the trickiest one – more like a “d” than an “r” (as in a British butler saying “very good, madam”) **

Ro-p’pon-giTokyo place

w = as in wander

Su-mi-da-ga-waSumida River

(Thank you http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~bestor/easy_pronunciation.htm for this useful grid!)


As you can probably tell, the rules of prounciation are similiar to those of Maori, or Samoan.
Except in Japanese, the G is not pronounced as a "gnah", err, yeah, you get what I mean.
Yes! That's correct! Japanese is indeed easy to pronounce! Especially in comparison to Chinese, boy, that's a mouthful.

So, anyway!
Back to the Japanese lesson of introduction!

Okay, let's start off simply here.

To say, my name is...
you'd say "Watashi no nomae (name)...."
Try it! Watashi no nomae Jeremi!
Let's break this down...
Watashi- The word for I,
No- the possesive particle (similiar to ')
Nomae- The word for name.

That's easy, wasn't it?
Please beware, that the grammar does get insanely different later on.

Okay, to say where you come from the phrase "...... kara kimashita" is essential!
(kara meaning from)
For example, "Nyujirando kara kimashita", would mean "I come from New Zealand!".

In order to state your age you would say, the number followed by "...sai desu"
E.g. Jyuu roku sai desu (I'm 16)
(sai meaning age, desu means it's)
Wait, wait, numbers?!
Don't worry, Japanese numbers are simple!
Here we go, count along!:

1- Ichi 20- Ni jyuu (2-10)
2- Ni 30- San Jyuu (3-10)
3- San 40- Shi Jyuu (4-10)
4- Shi 50-100 is the same logical structure, easy isn't it?
5- Go 23- Ni jyuu san (2-10-3)
6- Roku 34- San jyuu shi (3-10-4)
7- Hichi 45- shi jyuu go (4-10-5)
8- Hachi All other numbers with multiple digits follow this structure, too!
9- Kyuu 100- Hyaku (100)
10- Jyuu 200- Ni Hyaku (200)
300- San Hyaku (300)
324- San Hyaku ni jyuu shi
1,000- One thousand

Easy, isn't it?!
Exactly!

Okay, back to introductions,
to say "My hobbies are..."
You'd say "Watashi no shumi wa..."
(Watashi, I, No, possesive, Shumi, hobby, wa, is)
Followed by the hobbies!
Some examples of verbs/hobbies are-
Odotte- dancing, uta-singing, computaa- computering,
hashire- running, etc (We'll cover more verbs in another lesson)!
So, "watashi no shuma wa odotte to hashire"
Would be, "my hobbies are dancing and running"
(Oh, "to" means and, btw)

Now, lets move on to our language abillities in an introduction!
How do you say "I speak some Japanese and fluent english"?
Here we go !:

"Watashi no chotto nihongo wo hanshimasu"- I speak some Japanese
(Watashi, I, No, possesive, chotto, some, nihongo, Japanese, hanashimasu, speak, wo particle belonging to speak)
So, therefore "Watashi no eigo wo hanashimasu" is I speak english (Fluently)!
(Eigo meaning english, chotto was taken out because we know more than some english, and nihongo was taken out because we're not fluent in Japanese ;P)

Activity!

So, can you introduce your self now?
My introduction would be:

Konnichiwa, mina-san! Watashi no nomae Jeremi desu! Watashi wa jyuu roku sai desu!
Nyuujirando kara kimashita! Watashi no chotto nihongo wo hanashimasu, to, watashi no eigo wo hanashimasu! Watashi no shumi wa computaa to nihongo!

Thank you for viewing this lesson!
If you've read through this big block of text,
you're learning Japanese really well!
Awesome!
Please tune in for next time, (it'll be not as long next time, I promise! (,yakusoku!))


Ja Mata!


Friday, June 19, 2009

Welcome to my blog!- Introduction


Kombanwa mina-san! Good evening all!


Boku wa Jeremi desu! I'm Jeremy!


Welcome to my new blog dedicated towards my future exchange to Japan, for a whole year in 2011, the 28th March! This will be quite an exciting moment, one that that will be a life changing, culture immersive, and simply awesome experience! Because my exchange will be such an exciting event, I wouldn't want anyone to not experience it themselves. So, "How will I do this?" I thought... I got it! A blog. A blog will allow me to post diaries of my daily and weekly occurances of my life in Japan!

"So, why are you setting this up now, then?" I can hear reverberating throughout many of your intentive minds. Well, simply because the preparation for the exchange, will just be nearly as exciting! Fundraising, Japanese language learning, learning about Japan's culture etc etc will all be interesting aspects of this preparation process! This blog will be updated weekly, sometimes even more than that with useful tads of information about Japanese language, culture, and my fundraising processes~! Won't this be awesome? Yes! It will be ;) . I'll also make this blog as interactive as possible, posting polls, videos, competitions and other interesting and immersive activities!

I have recently set-up my youtube channel, JeremiDesuYo, in preparation for all of the video creations! There are a few videos on there right now regarding Japan, check them out!

During my exchange, I'll be posting many video diaries of my life in Japan, even taking videos of my Japanese school and friends, places of interests, exciting events and festivals in Japan etc!
I'll be taking advantage of this channel before I go too!, I'll try and get a video recorder asap to make it as interesting as humanly possible ;)

You want to know more about me, you say? Sure! I'm Jeremy, I'm 16 and I currently go to a college called Bishop Viard College, which is located in Porirua, New Zealand. Yep, I'm a kiwi, heh. My exchange will be taking place through the awesome high school year exchange programme, E.F. highschool year exchange ( visit www.ef.com for more information, and if you're interested in partaking in an exchange to almost any nation!).Raising the funds to go, may take some effort, but I've already raised atleast half of the required funds so far and have been accepted into the programme (with flying colours, I might add ;P), so it's inevitable that I'll be going! How will I be raising the excess money? Fundraising and part-time work (which you will frequently be updated of!).

So, if you want to learn the elegant, and awesome language of Japanese with me,
experience Japan itself, learn of Japan's interesting culture, and simply be involved in an exciting experience, then, this is the blog to frequently visit!

In order to get be frequently aware to remember this intriguing blog ;),
please bookmark this page ;)




Arigatou gozaimasu, mina-san! Thank you, everyone!


Please look out for my next interesting and intriguing post,


Ja mata!

(See you later!)